Australia NAB Business Confidence for September remained stable at a level of 1. Meanwhile, a decline was observed in Business Conditions, which slid from 14 to 11. A deeper dive into the components reveals trading conditions receding from 19 to 16, profitability conditions from 14 to 8, and employment conditions registering a dip from 10 to 8.
Notably, growth in labor costs saw a deceleration, moving from a 3.2% quarterly rate down to 2.0%. Additionally, purchase costs experienced a slowdown from 2.9% to 1.8%. Both final product prices and retail prices exhibited moderated growth rates, with the former decelerating from 1.7% to 1.0% while the latter remained unchanged at 1.8%.
NAB Chief Economist Alan Oster remarked, “the economy has remained in reasonable shape through the middle of the year.” He went on to note the +1 index points underscores that firms are somewhat ambivalent regarding their future prospects, with views split evenly regarding the outlook.
However, there was a silver lining in the inflation scenario. Oster highlighted that “the survey showed some positive signs for inflation with cost pressures and price growth easing in the month.”
Even though the imminent Q3 CPI release is anticipated to reflect strong inflation for the quarter, Oster noted, “the September survey results suggest the momentum of some of the key cost pressures driving inflation may have started to step back in a welcome sign for the broader inflation outlook.”
